Shards Of Glass
by FiresofAnarchy
Summary: A collection of one shots featuring various characters from Black Mirror.
1. Making Up

**Shards Of Glass**

 **Making Up**

 **So this show or more specifically the episode San Junipero was recommended to me by one of my English professors over a year ago, but I never really gave it much thought. Then I was watching the Twilight Zone marathon on New Year's Eve and a lot of the talk in the hashtags for that was about the new season of Black Mirror that just came out so I decided to start bingeing the entire series. I'm up to 4x02 now and I'm probably looking at finishing up the show later tonight, but I already had some fanfic ideas in my head and I needed a break anyways. Anyways here's something for 3x01 that I sorely needed after watching the episode. I was listening to Lights Out by We Are The In Crowd while writing this. I hope you like it.**

* * *

She had been fourteen when it all started. It began small, just another social media site to rival Facebook and Twitter. She was a shy, socially awkward girl with few friends and so she hadn't felt the need to join in that initial wave. Her father had called it the latest fad that would pass into the dustbin of social media history along with Myspace before too long; she had believed him. Only it wasn't the latest fad and it didn't become the next Myspace; instead it became something that the founders of Twitter and Facebook could have only imagined for their companies. That initial wave of users were almost all 4.8s and above now. If she had been one of them she might be sitting pretty on a private island somewhere still brainwashed that the ratings system actually meant something. She knew better now.

Knock, knock, knock, the sounds seemed to reverberate through the very air around her as she tried to calm the nerves coursing through every fiber of her being. They had only kept her in jail for five days and most of that was only in order to make sure she had no side effects from the procedure that removed the ratings system from her head for good. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now, where she was going to go. The world revolved around the ratings system and there were only a few remote locations where one such as herself could make their way in the world. Maybe she'd head to one eventually, but she needed to take care of something first. Another series of knocks and she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. This had to be the right address; he had to be here.

"This better be fucking important I was in the middle of killing this boss," her brother trailed off as he stared wide eyed at her.

"Lacie," he said softly after regaining himself. "What happened to you?"

"I've been," she paused searching for the right words.

"I've been a colossal bitch Ryan," she settled on. "Without that thing in my head I can see that now."

"They cut you off," he said ignoring her earlier comment. "How'd you manage that?"

"I crashed a wedding full of higher ups and held a knife to the throat of a rag doll," she said snorting a laugh at the absurdity of it all.

"Really," he was laughing too. "Well considering that piece of information right there I think any former colossal bitch behavior is more than made up for."

"I really am sorry," she said. "For everything I said before I left and for how I acted before that."

"Like I said big sis; consider it brushed under the rug," he said. "Now come on, this calls for a celebration."

He grabbed her hand and she soon found herself sitting on his couch with a beer in her hand.

"What was her face like," he said sitting down next to her.

"Naomi's," she questioned.

"Of course," he said.

"Pissed off," she said. "But in that stuck up, refined way where she didn't actually want to express it."

"Well big sis," he said clinking his own bottle with hers. "I'm proud of you for finally giving that bitch what she deserved."

It had felt good to finally let out all of the pain and anger that she had repressed over her life at the things Naomi had done to her. Ryan wasn't mad at her though and that felt ten times better. He was a good brother, better than she deserved after everything that she said and did in the name of chasing the highest rating possible. He was the only one that stood by her through it all, no matter the social blunder. He didn't even care about the ratings system but had seen how important it was to her and hadn't judged, at least not until she started judging him. Family was something that a ratings system just couldn't quantify and that's why he could forgive her and they could sit on the couch drinking like nothing had ever happened. Still she felt the need to apologize again.

"You don't have to pretend to be okay with what I said to you," she said. "It was some pretty stuck up shit."

"Here's the thing Lacie," he said sitting his bottle on the floor. "I'm not okay with it."

She waited for the tirade, the words that would tell her this was all a cruel lie and that she had damaged their relationship forever.

"I'm not okay with any of it really," he continued. "Because you were a stuck up bitch and some of the things you said really hurt."

"But I know that wasn't you," he said. "That was the ratings obsessed, wannabe Naomi version of you."

"So if you tell me that that person's gone now and that you're ready to be my sister again then I have no reason to stay angry," he finished. "Clearly you've been through a lot."

She tried to fight off the tears welling up in her eyes but couldn't manage it.

"You're the best," she said reaching to pull him into a hug. "You know that right."

"I try," he said returning the hug only slightly awkwardly.

"Do you have somewhere I can crash for the night," she asked after a minute.

"Of course," he said.

The room he showed her to was a small rec room lined with shelves that contained rows and rows of movies and games in physical form that he had gathered over the years. He liked his VR, but there was also something special about having something physical to hold onto. Most of it was things that she had never heard of before or hadn't seen since childhood, but one grouping of cases stuck out to her. "Sea of Tranquility: An Epic Sci Fi Adventure" followed by season numbers ranging from 1-7 sat there in raised lettering. She had heard about it before the ride on the RV obviously, but something like that wasn't the kind of thing that one who cared about maintaining a high rating watched on a regular basis. She took the disk out of the case marked season 1 and popped it into the video player hooked up to the TV on the far wall. Those ratings had no control over her anymore.

She had been 21 when the ratings system was enacted by the government as a policy to reduce negativity and do away with the dependence on physical currency. Arguing or physical altercations would result in harsh penalties from your peers and all transactions were based around the buyer and seller rating each other. Those with the inside edge on the system from seven years earlier immediately found themselves at the top of the heap and for the most part they were still there. There were those who resisted of course, people like her parents too stuck in the old system to adapt, but for the most part the transition was relatively peaceful. Previous social classes no longer meant anything and the public at large was now chasing after those few who had gotten the insider's edge on an even playing field.

It was all bullshit, she knew that now; a glossy exterior designed to cover up the same shit as before with different people at the top. She had given fourteen years of her life to that system, letting it tell her what to do and who to interact with. Friends she had known for years who weren't quite as adept at the system as she was were thrown to the wayside and likewise she had been thrown aside by people like Naomi. Now, without the system, practically everyone looked at her like she carried the plague. She was an outcast and while she had had to come back to make up with Ryan she knew that she had to leave eventually. She would think about that later when things were a little bit more settled in her mind. For now she was just content with the fact that no government enforced ratings system would distract her from what really mattered or keep her from being herself ever again.


	2. She Makes Things Tolerable

**Shards Of Glass**

 **She Makes Things Tolerable**

 **So I'm finished with the show now and I have to go with the majority and say that season 4 was an overall disappointment. USS Callister and Black Museum were trying too hard to make a point and the story suffered because of it, Crocodile and Arkangel had meh endings, and Metalhead just didn't accomplish anything. Hang The DJ was certainly on par with San Junipero as far as love stories go, but it alone could not save the overall lackluster season. I think season 3 is a borderline masterpiece and it's definitely my favorite. Seasons 1 and 2 are a tossup depending on whether or not you include White Christmas as part of season 2 like Netflix does or if you consider it as it's own separate special like it was originally aired. Either way overall the show is a great, more tech version of Twilight Zone and I hope to see more in the future. Anyways here's the other fanfic idea that came immediately to me while watching. I personally didn't like The Waldo Moment overall as an episode for a lot of reasons, but Tamzin and Jamie's chemistry really stood out to me and I was rooting for them over him and Gwen. I was listening to Hurricane by Lifehouse while writing this. I hope you like it.**

* * *

It was late, probably fast approaching midnight, and he couldn't find the will to pick himself up off the barstool and make his way to his room. At first his only goal had been to get plastered, drink enough that he could forget about how much his life had fallen apart over the course of the past two days. He was used to his life being shit, he was a thirty something second rate comedian who hadn't had a serious relationship in over a year, but things had finally felt like they were turning around. Waldo had been going strong for three years and the political campaigning, while not his cup of tea, had made the character infinitely more popular. A spinoff TV series would have meant a large increase in income and he could have finally moved to a nice apartment or even his own house. And things with Gwen had only just been starting but at the very least they had felt more real than just a one-night stand.

Gwen was his fault, he could take responsibility for that at least. He had overreacted and lashed out, destroying her future career in politics before it even began. It hadn't been his proudest moment and she had every right to give him the cold shoulder for the foreseeable future. Waldo on the other hand was all Jack's fault. The campaigning hadn't been something he enjoyed but he had grit his teeth and powered through it because at a certain point he had thought himself too far down the rabbit hole to back out. Jack just kept pushing though and eventually he had snapped and tried to make up for his months of foolishness in one motion. It hadn't worked, the idiotic masses had already made up their minds, and Jack was only too happy to take the spotlight for himself. He wasn't sure what he was going to do now except come back at the same time tomorrow and drink himself into a stupor again. Eventually, he managed to pick himself up and trudged off to his room.

He spent the majority of the next day going through the motions of writing out some standup material for the inevitable day when he actually needed some cash. He was about to head down to the bar for another round of self-loathing when there was a knock at his door. Even when everything in his life had been in order he hadn't gotten many visitors. He wasn't the type of person who found it easy to make new friends or had a lot of friends to begin with. And now that everything in his life had fallen apart a visitor was even less likely. Still, there were social graces that needed to be tended to so he made his way over to the door and opened it to find someone that he probably should have been expecting sooner or later come to think of it.

"Tamzin," he said as a way of greeting.

"That drink offer's still on the table isn't it," it was just a few simple words, but standing there, leather jacket wrapped around her like a suit of armor, with more poise than he could ever hope to muster Tamzin was perhaps the only one that could manage to put a smile on his face at this point. "Or were you content with your moping."

"No, no," he said. "It's definitely still on the table."

"Just let me get a quick change of clothes," in truth he had been planning on just heading down in the simple grey T-shirt and jeans that he already had on, but she didn't need to know that. He traded up to a blue button up and pair of khaki colored pants that he hoped didn't look too much like he had pulled them out of the back of his closet. A quick check of his hair and spattering of cologne and he was marginally satisfied that he didn't look like a complete slob.

"Somebody cleaned up," she said smirking when he reopened the door.

"Trust me," he replied. "This is far from cleaned up."

They made their way down to the small hotel bar and settled onto the comfortable furniture in the center; the same place he had met Gwen but he was trying not to dwell on that.

"So, no emails tonight," he said trying to break the ice.

She let out a soft laugh at that before hitting him in the shoulder.

"I don't spend all of my time reading emails you know," she said still recovering.

"I'd imagine not," he said. "How else would you have time to make those information packets?"

That got another round of laughter before she said, "Information packets you never even read."

"What can I say," he said. "I like to wing it."

This was how it always was with her. People thought almost everything that Waldo said or did was hilarious, he had gained popularity for a reason after all, but while that kind of recognition felt good especially at first it had always sowed the seeds in the back of his mind that they only found the character funny and not him. The unimpressed responses from Jack and the rest of the production team whenever he tried to crack a joke in a meeting didn't really help matters. And of course there was the initial meeting for the Waldo spinoff where a variety of ideas to show off his repertoire were shut down in favor of more stale Waldo. When it was just him and Tamzin in the studio though, doing their thing, the smiles and laughs flowed naturally. She thought he was funny even behind the scenes, she really got him, and he'd be lying if he said that wasn't one of the things that kept him coming back every day.

"Seriously though Jamie," she said. "How are you holding up?"

"Considering my life wasn't sunshine and rainbows beforehand," he said. "At least I don't have to deal with Jack anymore."

"Amen to that," she said clinking her glass with his. "I quit too by the way."

"Really," he said.

"Yeah," she said. "I'd rather not work day in and day out at the side of a creepy, power hungry asshole."

"Miss Tamzin," he used the familiar nickname. "I do believe this calls for a toast."

"What to," she questioned.

"To saying fuck you to Jack Napier," he said raising his glass.

"Fuck you Jack," she replied raising hers.

"Fuck you Jack," he concurred before they both knocked back what remained of their drinks.

"Hey, I've been writing some new material during my self-imposed moping period," he said. "Do you want to hear some?"

"A beta test," she said smirking. "I guess I could do that."

"Cool," he said. "Let me just run up and get the manuscripts."

"I can just come up with you," she said. "It looks like we're pretty much done here anyways."

"Of course Commander," he said trying for another laugh. "You are the one in charge after all."

And that's how they ended up back in his small hotel room, her sitting on his bed listening intently and him running through what he thought was his best new material. The laughs flowed freely and for the first time since everything happened with Gwen and Jack he felt like things were actually looking up. Jack had control of Waldo now and was going to take the political ruse as far as he could and make as much money as possible along the way and the odds of Gwen talking to him after everything were slim to none. He wasn't sure when the excessive drinking and moping around his hotel room would have ended had he been left to his own devices; weeks, months probably. Since he had met her though Tamzin had always been the one person able to pull him back from the brink and keep him moving forward and now was no different. With her by his side things were never actually quite as bad as they seemed.

* * *

 **As far as I can tell Tamzin is a first name so I worked under the assumption that him calling her Miss Tamzin was just a nickname and not referring to it being her last name. Also, Yorkie/Kelly and Frank/Amy were both cute stories and I'm always up for an opposites attract story like what people get out of Blue/Karin, but in all honesty this is the ship that grabbed me the most. I also don't think Jamie deserved the ending he got so I decided to write something a little happier for him.**


End file.
